The Way It Was Meant To Be
by Lady of Something
Summary: What if, during the Time of the Doctor, when the last Time-Lord in the universe regenerated, he became a girl? This folows the first adventure that trasnpires from this, and has all the things a fic needs-slight canon, humour, the TARDIS bullying Clara, slight Whump! and fluffiness for afterwards. And references. Sequel one-shot has been posted-see final authors note.
1. Prologue

**The Time of The Doctor: The Way It Was Meant To Be.  
**Disclaimer: If I owned Doctor Who, I wouldn't need to be writing this.  
**xXx**

**Prologue – Clara **

In which there is canon. Actually, it is exactly the storyline.(Don't sue me! I said it wasn't mine!)  
_"Raggedy Man, Goodnight." - Amelia Pond (Karen Gillan)_

Clara Oswald watched on as the Doctor said goodbye to someone only he could see. There was nothing she could do. Nothing. He was going to die, and she couldn't do anything. He was dying right before her eyes, the man she loved, and there was nothing she could do. She watched as he turned to her, and pulled off his bow-tie. He looked at her with a sad, regretful smile on his face, and the bow-tie dropped from his fingers into a pile on the glass floor. That, above all other motions he had made, told Clara that it was the end. He staggered, and leant against the console for support. "No, No!" she said, half sobbing, "Please don't change..." she whispered, reaching out to hold his hand. He staggered again, but this time, when he recovered, he was different. And Clara hoped, that in time, him being different would be OK.


	2. Crashing

**Crashing, or Chapter One – The Doctor**

In which the Doctor changes, and would just like to say the he 'totes' called it.

"_I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember when The Doctor was me." - The Eleventh (Matt Smith)_

The Doctor staggered, and he knew, as soon as he had recovered, that he had changed. It had been different this time: no arms-out head-back starfish with a light-show... he had just changed. But, truth to be told, this regenerations eyesight was rubbish. Absolutely terrible, really. He moved closer to Clara, just to see her face, and she stepped back, frightened. Of course! He mentally hit himself. He'd just turned into a completely new person: it was going to take her a while to adjust. He just wished he knew what she was thinking, wished that he could see the emotions on Clara's face. It was awful, not being able to know what was going on around him.

"My God this is weird! And the eyesight's terrible, must be regeneration sickness. Sorry, so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! But as I said, awful eyesight, can't see you, and I wanted to check to see if you were OK! Oh, and am I ginger?" He asked. Was it just him, or was his voice slightly feminine...?

"Uh..." Clara's eyes darted to his head, "no. You're kinda golden-brown-ish."

Damn. Anyway, there was a more important thing to focus on.

"We're crashing!"

"Crashing!?" Clara echoed. "Into what? Can you stop it?"

"I'm... I'm not sure." he admitted, then promptly started dashing around the console, muttering under his breath. The Doctor wondered what they were crashing into, they were still in the time vortex, they should be safe. He would find out later. First item on the agenda: _stop_ crashing.

"I need to reconfigure the boosters, switch on the stabilisers... who would ever have guessed that I'd ever use those!" He laughed, still pulling levers and pressing buttons, trying to ignore the pang in his chest at the memory of River teaching him about them.

"Doctor," Clara started, "are we still crashing? Cause I have something really, really important I need to bring to your attention..."

"As of..." the Doctor flicked a lever, and the TARDIS became stable, "Now, no!" He spun to face her (this body had better balance than his previous one), "Yes, OK. So what did you want to tell me? Is something wrong? 'Cause that would be very likely, my regenerations have never happened like that before! I tend to imitate a starfish on fire, so the likelihood of something going wrong is ver-"

"Doctor!" Clara shouted, interrupting his tangent. "Can you please listen to me!"

"Yes?" He asked, an eyebrow quirked. What had happened? He felt a sense of dread settle in his stomach. With his luck, he'd probably be...

"Doctor... in case you haven't noticed, you're kind of a girl."

Called it, the Doctor wanted to say. It was rare, but if anyone was to break the rules, it was the Doctor. But he (**she**, she would have to think of herself as now), settled with-

"Yes, I sort of expected something along the lines of that to happen." She sighed.

**xXx**

_I would like to explain that, while this is not the first story that I have posted, it is the first story that I wrote._


	3. You're a girl

**You're a Girl, or Chapter Two – Clara**

In which Clara finds out what the new Doctor looks like, and The Doctor makes a prediction.

"_Hair! I'm a girl! No! No, I'm not a girl… and still not ginger!" - The Eleventh_

He'd changed. He'd changed into a girl. He (**she**, Clara had to remind herself) was now a girl, and it was rather weird. She leant forward, squinting slightly, eyelids coming down to obscure hazel-blue eyes, and Clara jumped back, spurred into action at the movement. She saw the Doctor mentally hit himself (**herself**, **god** this was strange) at her actions, and the Doctor apologised, in the same odd way that he (**she**) did.

"My God this is weird! And the eyesight's terrible, must be regeneration sickness. Sorry, so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! But as I said, awful eyesight, can't see you and I wanted to check to see if you were OK! Oh, and am I ginger?" The Doctor rabbled, before adding the question on as an afterthought.

Clara wasn't sure what to think at that. OK? Define OK. Her best friend was a male alien, and he'd turned from a really, really old alien back to young again then into a female alien. It was all a bit too strange to be simply 'OK'. She remembered the Doctor's question. Her eyes darted up to look at her hair, and noticed that no, it wasn't ginger (and probably never would be), it was more of a golden brown. She told her so.

Then, to add onto the craziness of the day, the Doctor said something she would have been more frantic about had she not still been in shock.

"We're crashing!" the Doctor announced.

"Crashing!?" Clara echoed. Into what? They were in the time vortex, weren't they? What was there to crash into? She voiced her last sentiments. "Into what? Can you stop it?"

"I'm... I'm not sure." the Doctor admitted, a small frown creasing her brow.

Well, this was just brilliant. Clara added **crashing **onto her list of things wrong with where she was at the moment. The Doctor began dancing around the console, muttering under her breath about stabilisers, before laughing hollowly. She noticed that, despite there being a lot of it and it looking rather out-of-control, the Doctor's new hair never got into her face. Handy, that was. And she didn't have as much of a chin. Despite the fact that Clara would have endless things to tease her about if the Doctor was to get her gender mixed up, she would tell her, because she would be too mortified if the Doctor did introduce herself as a him..

"Doctor," she started, "are we still crashing? Cause I have something really, really important I need to bring to your attention..."

"As of..." the Doctor flicked a lever, and the TARDIS became stable, "Now, no!" she spun to face her. "Yes, OK. So what did you want to tell me? Is something wrong, cause that is very likely, my regenerations have never happened like that before, I tend to imitate a starfish and am set on fire a little bit, so that would be very like-"

"Doctor!" Clara shouted, interrupting her tangent. She used to find it cute the way that she would go off about things like this, but now really wasn't the time. "Can you please listen to me!"

"Yes?" she said, an eyebrow quirked. She could still do that? Oh no...

"Doctor... in case you haven't noticed, you're a girl." Clara waited for the disbelief, the no, of course not! Don't be ridiculous! But what she heard was far from that.

"Yes, I sort of expected something along the lines of that to happen." the Doctor sighed. "Well, Clara, because personally, I think we both deserve a break, we should go home. To your place."

Clara held her breath. Was the Doctor sending her away? Was this goodbye, without her ever coming back? But the wording in the Doctor's next sentence told her different.

"Before we go, I'd better get changed, but you know what? I think we'll be just in time for Christmas."

And when Clara looked at the Doctor's face, she saw a smile. And it was OK. For now.

**xXx**

_I saw the 1 fave and 1 follow and I was just, O.O then, =D thank you so much, Tsunayuki Takahashi! It's kinda pitiful, when I think back to it, but I was so happy..._


	4. Time Lord (Lady) Luck

**Time Lord (Lady) Luck, or Chapter Three – The Doctor**

In which the Doctor gets a new outfit, and teaches Clara a new word.

"_When you think about it, we are all different people, all through our lives and that's okay, that's good! You've gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be." - The Eleventh_

Regeneration was never one of the Doctor's strong points. Where other Time-lords/ladies, like Romana, could choose their next face, or some, like the Master, while not having total control, were still able to get what they aimed for, the Doctor couldn't even make himself (**her**self, as she had to keep on reminding herself) ginger. It was always a luck-of-the draw in her case. So it didn't really faze her that much that she had changed genders. Of course, she may still be in shock, and the message may still be on the way to her brain, but she assured herself that when she did realise, and it sank in fully, she would have Clara to talk to. She didn't have much, but she had that little bit more than nothing.

Now that she had the space, she noticed a faint twinge in the back of her mind that was most likely caused by the change in such a big event. What big event, you may be asking? Well, the fact that she was supposed to have died! The Doctor had mostly kept her time-sense locked up, so that she wouldn't see her companions future, so this must be big if it had escaped. And it was, because according to the current time-line, her grave had never been at Trenzalor, which means that her life since the moment she met Clara should have been deleted. But here she was, and her brain was hurting.

She went back to looking in the mirror. She wasn't that bad, to be honest. A little on the short side, but that was ok. A bit young looking, but the same went for her past regeneration, so she could work with that. Not much of a chin. But the hair! She would probably have to tie that up. And she had eyebrows! She smiled at her reflection, turned away from the mirror, and went out-fit hunting.

25 minutes later, she had an outfit that she liked. A brown trench coat over slightly flared jeans with a TARDIS blue top. It wasn't too bad. And she had joggers on. She spent more time running than sleeping. She might as well wear shoes made for it. And it was only a temporary measure, but she used a bow-tie from Eleven's days to keep her hair in place.

The Doctor walked into the control room to find Clara standing there, looking at something. Her eyesight really was horrible: she could barely see Clara, let alone what she was looking at. This wasn't right – regeneration must have gone a bit wonky – maybe she was sick. Thankfully, the TARDIS heard her thoughts, and glasses appeared on the console. She put them on gratefully, and turned to Clara.

"What do you think?" she said, spinning.

"Looking good." Clara said, smiling slightly. She noticed it, and her smile widened.

"Your T-shirt has a bow!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor smiled. "I wasn't ready to give them up yet. Bow-ties are cool. This is the feminine version."

"Ooh, we're using big words, are we? Clever girl." Clara said, smirking slightly.

"Oi, I use big words all the time, large, enormous, gigantic words."

"Like what?" Clara challenged.

"Like Raxacoricofallapatorious."

"You made that up!"

"Nope! It's the home planet of the Slitheen. I made friends with one once. Her name was Blon." the Doctor said smugly. "Alright! Christmas! With rubbish crackers that don't have jokes and time-vortex turkey. On y va?"

"That means shall we go right?" the Doctor nodded. "So, yes is Oui, yeah?" another nod.

"Oui. Allons-y!"

The Doctor offered her arm to Clara, and after a moment of hesitation, she linked it in her own. They shared a smile, and with that, they walked out the doors of the TARDIS, arms interlocked.

**xXx**

_My fingers are crossed. Love it, hate it, burn it?_

_Massive thanks to TheDoctorAllTheWay for following this story. 3_


	5. Just in Time for Christmas

**Just in Time For Christmas, or Chapter Four – Clara**

In which Clara sees some of the Doctor's previous outfits, and the TARDIS helps the Doctor get the date right.

"_Ah. Yes. Blimey. Sorry! Christmas eve on a rooftop. Saw a chimney, my whole brain just went, what the hell!" - The Eleventh_

After the Doctor went to find more feminine clothes, Clara struggled to hold back tears as she noticed the bow-tie on the ground. In less than a second, almost everything she had known about the Doctor had been erased. She picked up the bow-tie, and placed it gently on the console, beside the picture of him, the one she had known, with the chin and the hair and the bow-tie, and her leaning on the TARDIS. Clara missed him. He was still there, as **her**, but she missed the Doctor that she had known. The TARDIS gave a click and a whir, as if it was agreeing with her.

"Well, that'd be a first," Clara said aloud. The TARDIS made the sound that Clara associated with laughing, and then went back to being silent.

Clara wondered if the Doctor had changed before. After the thought left her mind, the monitor blinked into life, and there was a slide-show of different people, all of them men, seemingly with worse dress sense than the one before him.

"Is that- is that **celery**? Oh, he looks like a clown!"

The TARDIS laughed in answer. Clara decided that bow-ties were the least worrying part of the Doctor's list of fashion. Though, the coat and pinstripes weren't too bad. The monitor went black again, and Clara went back to looking at the photo, and thus didn't notice the Doctor enter the room.

"How do I look?" the Doctor asked, spinning.

Clara looked over at the Doctor. She was wearing what looked to be a brown trench coat over a TARDIS blue T-shirt and jeans, with joggers to complete the image. She also noticed the glasses- hopefully they were only temporary.

"Acceptable." Clara decided, with a small smile.

It was certainly better than the bright coat that one of his previous regenerations had worn. It was then she noticed it. There was a bow on the Doctor's shirt, a tiny reminder that she was still there, still the Doctor. Her smile grew wider.

"Your T-shirt has a bow!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor smiled. The female version of him actually wasn't too bad. Seemed more like a friend.

"I wasn't ready to give them up yet. Bow-ties are cool. This is the feminine version."

"Ooh, we're using big words, are we? Clever girl." Clara said, smirking slightly.

"Oi, I use big words all the time, large, enormous, gigantic words." The Doctor said, looking scandalised.

"Like what?" Clara challenged. Back to arguing. This was ok. The Doctor and her, arguing like the 'good old days'.

"Like Raxacoricofallapatorious." The Doctor said. Clara wasn't sure if she was joking or not. This was ridiculous. That can't be a real word.

"You made that up!"

"Nope! It's the home planet of the Slitheen. I made friends with one once. Her name was Blon." the Doctor said smugly. "Alright! Christmas! With rubbish crackers that don't have jokes and wonderfully cooked turkey. On y va?"

Well at least she knew a bit of French. The TARDIS didn't translate these small things, like when the Doctor said hello or goodbye or something in a different language. Maybe it was because she knew it. Or because the TARDIS just didn't like her. It was probably the latter, knowing the TARDIS.

"That means shall we go right?" the Doctor nodded. "So, yes is Oui, yeah?" another nod. " Oui. Allons-y!"

The Doctor offered her arm to Clara. What would happen if she didn't take it? Would the Doctor be hurt by the gesture, or try to explain that it was alright, and just shrug it off? Clara pondered this for a moment, then she linked it with her own anyway. The Doctor smiled, and Clara found herself smiling back. And with that, they walked out the doors of the TARDIS, arms interlocked.

They made it a few feet before Clara asked,

"Doctor? Are you sure you're OK with being a girl?"

After all, the Doctor had pretty much just lost all that he was sure of. Everything had changed except his gender, and now that had been edited as well. The Doctor's life was insane, Clara decided.

The Doctor seemed to consider this, before saying,

"Actually, I think I'm still in shock. Of course, I'm not even sure that Time-Lords can go into shock, but something's got to tip them over sometime, yeah?" Clara agreed. If any other Time-Lord's life was anywhere near as strange as the Doctor's, there would have to be a tipping point. The Doctor continued.

"Yes, I'm sure once it sinks in I will most likely 'freak out' a bit, as you say, so don't be surprised. I may just go pale, and imitate a fish for the most of it, though. I'll try to keep it bottled up until we reach the TARDIS."

Clara noted the try.

**xXx**

_Please note the try in this, as in 'I'm trying but I'm really not good at this yet' try._


	6. Time-Vortex Turkey

**Time-Vortex Turkey, or Chapter Five – The Doctor**

In which the Doctor develops a dislike for turkey, and has some hormone issues. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

"_It doesn't do turkey! Nothing does turkey! You'd need a time machine!" - The Eleventh_

** xXx**

A Field and a few flights of stairs later, the new new new Doctor was seated at the table with Clara and her family. Thanks to some quick thinking on her part, the Doctor was Clara's 'boyfriend's' sister, who Clara invited to come here in her 'brother's' stead when he was called off to the hospital in an emergency. It was very weird, lying, when all she'd told for the past 500 years was the truth. She almost missed it.

Sitting at the table at Christmas reminded her of another time where this had happened. Poor Tylers. Poor, poor, Rose. She wondered how she was going with the meta-crisis her. Well it was no longer her meta-crisis: she'd changed twice since then, and she didn't even resemble her tenth regeneration. She was a girl, for starters. She began to wonder how her previous companions would react. Jack would probably keep on flirting, and Martha would have a field day. She realised, all-too suddenly, how many companions she had lost. Thankfully, 'Gran' interrupted this stream of thoughts before it could go any further.

"Clara, this turkey is amazing!" she complimented.

"Oh, yeah, thanks! The Doctor helped me with it. He called it Time-vortex turkey." Clara said with a smile at the Doctor. She smiled back. This was nice.

The Doctor took a bite of the turkey, only to grimace. This was nice, but she really hated turkey, even with the new taste-buds. She swallowed, and then it hit her. Then she really realised. She was a girl. She was a girl, and she was in a house, and it was Christmas, and she was eating turkey cooked in a time vortex. She paled. Of all the times to come out of shock...

"I... I have to go. Sorry!" she burst out, and then ran out, down the stairs, across the field, and into the TARDIS.

She shut the door behind her, and slumped onto the floor, leaning against the wall. She felt that she was either going to laugh uncontrollably, or burst into tears. She decided to go with the former. It would be less embarrassing when Clara found her.

So she laughed. Laughed at the fact that she'd been running all her life but was unable to escape it, laughed at the fact that she'd gone through regeneration faster than the most dare-devil Gallifreyans but had outlived them all, even though she had run out of lives. Laughed at the fact that she was the most powerful and feared being in the universe but had still lost almost everything.

And somewhere between these thoughts (and she'd blame it on the new hormones later), the laughs had turned into sobs, and the TARDIS must have hidden her, because Clara didn't find her tear-stained form for 28 minutes. So much for not getting embarrassed.

**xXx**

_This story is terrible, and I'm sorry, but I don't have the time or energy to improve it. It's also really really short. I'll probably post most of the rest of the chapters in one big clump, so that I can get it out of the way._

_Love it, hate it, burn it? I'm really hoping that I'm the only one that thinks that this fic is bad- I'm actually embarrassed for it and slightly afraid of posting it!_


	7. I Suspect I May Have Come Out of Shock

**I Suspect I may have come out of shock, or Chapter Six – Clara**

In which Clara goes on about her odd day (again) and the Doctor complains about tear ducts.

"_I hate boy bands." - Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman)_

**xXx**

This was perhaps the oddest day that Clara had ever had. First, her best friend, who was incidentally a 1000-and-something year old time-lord, had been her boy-friend, then they had gone to a town named Christmas, where, by the way, you couldn't lie in, then she'd been sent home, and then the TARDIS, while trying to get back, dragged her through time and space, to find that the friend of hers had aged 300 years! (he didn't look it, but that was beside the point) She was then sent back home again, then taken back again by an all-powerful nun, to find that her friend was an old man (he was anyway, but now he looked it) and was dying, without hope of return. Then Clara had had to convince these seemingly all-knowing beings to save him, only to have him turn into a girl! (this was something that she couldn't seem to stress enough) So, yeah, an odd day. (she noticed and acknowledged that she kept on going on about this, but she was still trying to get her head around it.)

So, after coming up with an excuse as to why the Doctor had run off, pale-faced (her 'brother' had rung, and he'd said he'd only ring if it was an emergency), she ran down the many flights of stairs across the field, hoping beyond hope that the Doctor hadn't left her. And when she saw the TARDIS, she had run even faster. Once she had entered the ship she had immediately started calling for the Doctor. Of course, there was no answer. So she went off to look, the TARDIS console laughing at her the whole time.

After what felt like hours of searching (Clara suspected that the TARDIS was bending time around her, because the console clock said that only 20 minutes had passed) and 8 minutes of convincing the TARDIS to tell her where she was (You've hidden her, haven't you. Alright, where is she!) she found the Doctor, huddled against the wall in the console room. There were tear tracks on her face but she smiled up at her, and said:

"I suspect I may have come out of shock."

And, despite the situation, Clara laughed. The Doctor continued:

"How do you females cope! The hormones are outrageous! No wonder you can be so 'happy friends' at one point and slapping me the next. The emotions are ridiculous! And there's a weird organ placement, that's a bit different, and the tear ducts are out of control!"

The Doctor seemed to have bounced back, but she wondered if, no, forget if, when the Doctor would finally crack. As with the shock, there had to be a tipping point, and Clara was determined to get the real cause of the problem out of her, and preferably sooner rather than later. The Doctor jumped up onto her feet, and started walking up to the console.

"Alright, come along..." The Doctor faltered momentarily, as if she had forgotten who was there. "Clara. Now, quite frankly, I am running on adrenaline, and if I don't eat something I will most likely collapse at a very inconvenient time. So, we are going to do something that I have refrained from doing for a very long time: shopping."

And with that, the Doctor flicked a few levers and pressed a button, and they were on their way. Clara crossed her fingers. Knowing the Doctor, they'd probably be a fair bit off their destination. But she smiled at the Doctor, who was grinning madly at her, all the same.

**xXx**

_Yeah, one big clump. Lucky you. Please review? I'm hoping that at least one person is still reading..._


	8. The Ponds and Lady Luck

**The Ponds and Lady Luck, or Chapter Seven – The Doctor.**

In which the Doctor provides a lacking overview of some old friends, and Lady Luck has a grudge.

"_Amelia Pond, the girl who waited." - The Eleventh._

**xXx**

Given her current situation, the Doctor felt that she may need more variations of food than she had in the TARDIS storeroom. Remembering her previous situation when it came to finding a food her regeneration liked, shopping seemed like a good idea. The fact that the TARDIS had blocked off all the kitchens and removed all the food anywhere else only solidified the fact that they needed to go shopping. And, as her ninth incarnation had said about milk: of all the species in the universe, it had to come out of a cow. Also, she had a ship that travelled in time and space, so why did she always go to Earth? But these were questions to ask when she had the time to consider them.

"We're here!" she announced with a grin. "And we're only a kilometre off!"

Clara also smiled at this. The Doctor was halfway to the door when Clara spoke up.

"Doctor," She turned to face her, unsure of where this was going, "Who were you hoping I was? You, know, before?"

The Doctor swallowed. She had a feeling that she knew what 'before' she was talking about, and despite the 1000-or-something years that had passed, it was still too soon, and it probably always would be.

"Well, I'm hoping you were Clara." she joked. But Clara wanted answers.

"What were you going to call me?" she asked insistently.

The Doctor liked having curious companions (it had gotten her out of trouble in the past) but she certainly didn't appreciate them using this curiosity to poke into her past life.

"Pond." The Doctor said. Oh, Amelia Pond. You'll be waiting all your life...

"What?"

"Not what, who." She was trying to hold back tears. The system control wasn't infallible, and female emotions were just so sensitive!

"Alright then, who?"

"Amelia and Rory Pond. They were... friends." No they weren't. They were so, so much more. They were the two people that never lost faith, not even when she made them wait for decades and centuries.

She spun back around to face the door, and walked over to it. Clara ran to catch up.

"Where are we?" Clara asked. Wasn't that the question.

"Well, I'm hoping that we are somewhere near a shop." the Doctor replied.

It turned out that somewhere near was around 2 kilometres away, and the TARDIS, even when asked nicely, refused to let the girls back in. So the pair spent a good half an hour walking to the closest shop to get the very basics, before trekking back to the blue box at a considerably faster speed, due to the oncoming night.

**xXx**

_No comment, other than I'm Sorry._


	9. Ginger and Chocolate and Cheese, Oh My!

**Ginger and Chocolate and Cheese, Oh My! - Clara**

In which the Doctor discovers what she likes. Which is a pretty short list. With cheese and chocolate. And tea. **Ginger** tea.

"_I hate pears." - The Tenth (David Tennant)_

**xXx**

When they got back to the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately initiated a race to the kitchen. After being lost for a good hour, Clara decided to admit defeat. The TARDIS really hated her, and this was only solidified by the fact that the next turn she took led her **straight to the kitchen**. The Doctor was sitting on the chair, her legs swinging above the ground like a child's, and there was an assortment of food on the table.

"Let's get started." Clara sighed, resigning herself to her fate. The Doctor had eaten the strangest combinations of food in her previous generation, and Clara had the feeling that this one would be no different.

Clara soon found that, as she had believed, the Doctor was very picky when it came to food. The list of things that she didn't like far outweighed the list of things she did. Tea, of course, was first (preferably ginger- Clara had a good laugh about that) followed by chocolate and cheese (together of course- this is from the person that invented fish custard) and not much else. However, the list of things that the Doctor didn't like comprised of these food items:

Pears (she didn't even have to try it – smelling it made her throw up.)

Apples (one bite – it was like Snow White, except she didn't fall asleep.)

Bread and Butter (it's Amelia's all over again, the Doctor moaned.)

Bacon (have you got any proper food? Or non-human food? The Doctor asked.)

This weird fruit thing from the planet of Plomitasiton (the planet of fruits, it's basically a gigantic garden.)

Baked beans (at which point they gave up, and let her eat bananas and chocolate cheese.)

After the Doctor had ruined the kitchen, Clara and the TARDIS were very eager to get her out. And, seeing as she was about to collapse from exhaustion, the Doctor seemed perfectly happy to do as they wished. She saluted Clara, who had begun the clean-up effort, and started making what Clara assumed was the long trek to her room.

But Clara, dedicated to her cleaning as she was, didn't notice the bug-like metallic creature scuttle out of one of the shopping bag and towards the console room.

**xXx**

_Omg, I have a plot! So, this is the end of the stuff I wrote during the holidays, and the quality should go up from this point onwards. Should._


	10. Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights?

**Hey, Who Turned Out The Lights, or Chapter Nine – Clara  
**(Yes, it (the POV) goes against all the rules of the universe- the universe doesn't care. Ever)

In which something very, very not good gets into the TARDIS.

"_You're just a parasite!" - The Eleventh._

Clara was on an alien planet, and she' gotten lost, and she couldn't find the Doctor, and there was a bang, and she was falling, falling, falling-

Clara woke with a start (she had, against all odds, had managed to find her room), breathing heavily. Strangely, all the lights were out, and there was sickly green glow emitting from the walls. Somehow, through her fogged thoughts, Clara knew that something was wrong. She rapidly dressed and ran towards the console room, barely noticing that the halls didn't seem to twist and bend around her as they normally did. She found the Doctor darting around the console, a furrow between her brows and a pained look on her face that soon turned to desperation.

"No, no, no!" The Doctor said, her voice increasing in volume as she fiddled with the TARDIS controls. "No, please, don't do this to me!" she said almost hysterically.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Clara asked. What had made the Doctor so upset? Her sleep muddled brain wondered.

"Something's gotten in the TARDIS, it's destroying the matrix." She told her, seemingly close to tears.

"What-" Clara started, unsure of what to say. "Can we stop it?" she decided on asking.

"Yes, but it's going to be very, very difficult." the Doctor told her, still fiddling with switches.

"How difficult is very, very?" Clara asked. She needed more information...

"Very, very difficult, as in, I don't even know where to go to fix it, difficult." The Doctor said rapidly, licking her lips nervously. "And it should be starting very, very soon. So let's get going!" she suddenly said in a much more cheery voice than before, and started walking down one of the TARDIS' many corridors. Clara, caught by the sudden change in character, had to run to catch up.

"Doctor," Clara asked, "I thought you didn't know where to go?" The Doctor turned into another of the grey-blue-green corridors and started running, Clara following.

"Well... I don't, exactly." the Doctor admitted, "But I'm wagering a guess at near the heart of the TARDIS."

Okay... Clara thought. Way to be cryptic. "And where exactly is that, oh High-and-mighty-queen-of-fluff?"

The Doctor groaned, still going at the same speed as they took a sharp left. "Oh, come on!" she complained. "That's even worse than chin-boy. There is nothing wrong with my hair!" she said defensively.

Clara smirked. "If you say so." she said loftily. The Doctor pouted, and refused to talk to her for the next 6 turns: Left, past the fish tank and museum, left again, avoiding the library, a right, past a door with a rose carved on it (the Doctor increased her pace at this point, then slowed down in the next corridor), left, down a flight of stairs that went on forever then went right before stopping at a fork, at which the Doctor paused for a moment, then took the left.

"Why so many lefts?" Clara complained, as they slowed their pace to a walk.

The Doctor shrugged. "It feels like a 'go left' kinda day, don't you think?" she said offhandedly, moving about a metre away, then crouching down to examine some circular etchings at Clara's knee-height.

Clara frowned, and shrugged. It didn't really matter, anyway. "What are those?" she asked referring to the markings on the wall.

"They keep the matrix defended." the Doctor said, distracted- she was running her sonic screwdriver over the circles, then frowning at the readings. "When they disappear, it means that they security, at that point, has been breached. This one is the most important one, and it is very, very close to getting destroyed. We'll need to find what is breaking into the TARDIS before that time." she said rapidly, straightening up and pocketing her sonic, but it remained glowing.

"How will you tell if we're moving away from here?" asked Clara, "Is it you're time-head or something?"

"Clara, don't be silly. I don't have a time head- that was my father." the Doctor said jokingly. "Nah, the sonic's emitting heat- when it cools down, I'll know that it's been breached. But we probably won't have to worry about that." she explained, moving further along the corridor at a brisk walk. Clara groaned, before following at the same pace.

The Doctor heard her sound of complaint. "It could be worse!" she insisted.

Clara couldn't think of anyway the situation could be worse- they TARDIS was shutting down, the security was breached, and she was running, sorry, **briskly walking**, in almost-heels.

"No." Clara disagreed, "I don't think that this could possible be any worse."

Then the lights went out.

**xXx**

_*gasp* a Cliffie? Yes, I am capable of these so called, 'cliffies'._


	11. And Now Even That Has Come To An End

**So Incredibly Happy and so Impossibly Sad, or Chapter 10 – The Doctor**  
_It's the end! Thanks to Oswinald, my only reviewer- Thank you for your support. I don't think I could have finished this as well and a soon as I did (well is a relative term) without your review- it helped that much. I also kinda just wanted to get it over and done with- the plot bunnies are clambering for my attention. Have a free happy feeling dedicated to you! Oh, and this chapter is dedicated to you as well._

In which all good things come to an end- but not really, because this is more of a very very not-good thing, so it's more all good things come to those who put up with the bad things and quite possible make the better.

"_Alive. I'm alive."... "And now even that has come to an end." - Idris aka The TARDIS (Surrane Jones)_

When the lights went out, everything seemed to stop. The sonic turned almost as cold as ice, the bright green glow faded and began to flicker on and off and the corridor shut off. The Doctor and Clara were stuck in a tiny room with their breathing being the only noise.

"You just had to say that!" the Doctor hissed, quite understandably upset. Clara was about to retort when the Doctor lifted a hand and put it over her lips. She'd heard a noise, a metallic scuttling that seemed to resound through the walls, before stopping entirely.

"Did you hear that?" the Doctor breathed, ears straining to hear the noise again. It couldn't have just stopped, she could hear it only a moment ago. Then there was a clanging, and they fell, onto to land with a crack on either sides of a partition.

"Clara?" the Doctor asked carefully, "Are you OK?"

She heard a wince from the other side of the wall then an equally shaky voice replied, in a tone slightly higher than usual.

"I think- I think I may have broken something." that was all she managed to say, as the ground suddenly dropped into a steep slope, the two girls were flung downwards, almost vertically, as the wall closed in behind them. Still separated by the partition, there was no comfort for either of them- no hand to hold, only a seemingly endless slope that continued on and on without end.

It seemed to be forever that the Doctor fell- sometimes images of past failures were forced into her mind and her senses were played with until nothing contained any form of logic.

What seemed like eons later, the slope lessened, and another image was forced into the Doctor's mind- a shimmering metal room with a bright red-orange substance below a drop 5 metres from the wall. The Doctor recognised the image- the room was an incinerator, and it helped power the TARDIS' thermal channels, which created most of their heat.

Then the image became a reality, and the Doctor knew, this time, that it was no longer a trick, this wasn't just another scenario where she was forced to watch Clara die over and over again, this wasn't another time when the intruder had played with her senses, convinced her she was back in the Time War and all that had happened since was just a dream- she really was at the edge of the slope.

However, out of the tunnel beside her, Clara came hurtling at a much faster pace, and was flung over the edge, eliciting a cry of "Clara!" from the Doctor as her brunette friend fell over the side. She crawled over far enough to see over the edge and felt a slight bit of relief as she found her friend hanging onto the ledge. Then claws dug into her leg, ripping through flesh and muscle alike as she was torn away from her friend and flung into the corner of the room. The spidery thing that had grabbed her, satisfied with the damage, crawled over to Clara, and dug it's claws into her hands, loosening her grip on the edge. Clara screamed.

"Hold on Clara!" the Doctor cried, semi-panicking. What was she going to do?!

**oOo**

**POV Change! Presenting... Clara!  
**_(Yeah, again with the action stuff... Sorry.)_

The pain was excruciating. The heat battered every inch of her, super-heating her body into an inferno. Her grip was so tight she was sure she was cutting off the blood into her fingers, not that it particularly mattered- unless the Doctor did something she was going to die. She was biting back a scream, drawing blood from her bottom lip. Then the needle-sharp claws dug into her hands and she screamed, though the noise made her feel slightly better. She heard a whirring noise and the pain in her fingers lessened, but not before there was a sharp jab, and her world faded to black as her fingers released the edge and she was falling, falling, fallen...

**oOo**

Clara woke with a start, breathing heavily, but she didn't open her eyes. Then the pain set in. She opened her mouth, about to scream, but then the pain vanished, as if it were never there, and she was left with just a lack of air in her lungs, despite her heavy breathing, as if she'd just run across and alien spaceship all the way to the TARDIS after the Doctor was sentenced to death (yes, it had happened). The memory of the days events came flooding back to her, and she sat up rapidly, but was stopped by a hand- the Doctor's, but not.

Clara opened her eyes to see a dimly-lit room, and the Doctor standing beside her, leaning against the bed-post. Despite her only time being in there was to find a plaster (she failed), Clara knew that this was the TARDIS med-room. And, despite only having very sparse memories of the time before she was knocked out, Clara knew that the Doctor had been injured rather severely.

"What are you doing here?" Clara asked quietly.

"I came to check on you." The Doctor replied at an equal volume, looking slightly guilty.

"Get back to bed. I'm fine." Clara told her.

The Doctor opened her mouth to argue, but Clara stopped her with a glare. It was then that the darker brunette noticed her friends condition. Her clothes were in disarray, but her hair, somehow, was relatively flat, as if she'd been running her fingers through it in distress. Her breathing was slightly heavier, as if she'd been running...

"You were worried about me." Clara deduced. "Worried enough that you came running when I woke up." Clara smirked as the Doctor blushed.

"It wasn't- I didn't-" the Doctor sputtered, before sighing.

"Yeah, I was really worried." the Time-Lady admitted.

Clara smirk grew, and she almost missed the Doctor's next statement.

"You'd died." she breathed, her eyes distressed. "You'd died, and you wouldn't wake up, and you'd fallen over the edge-" she inhaled sharply as tears threatened to fall, and Clara's heart almost literally melted. She sat up, and took the girl into a hug.

"I'm 'right now." she said soothingly.

"Don't you ever do that again." the Doctor whispered shakily.

"I'll be fine. I'm the impossible girl, yeah? I've lasted this far."

The Doctor drew back, and gave her a weak smile.

"Alright, impossible girl." she said, voice slightly more confident. "Where do you want to go?"

Clara grinned. "Somewhere awesome."

And as the duo ran towards the console room, Clara couldn't help but think that this was the way it was meant to be.

**xXx**

_I'm done! Thank you to my followers, my favouriters, my mum for thinking I was doing homework, my dad for letting me on the Wi-Fi, another thank-you to Oswinald, thank-you to for not deleting my account so far, thank you to Moffat- actually, no thanks, I preferred Matt, and would have liked it if he could stay forever. But alas, 10 got rid of Lazarus' machine._

_Thanks to all those who even bothered to read this lame story! But look on the bright side- it can only get better from here on in. Yeah...  
__As I said, thank you so much for those who alerted, favourited, etc, and for those who couldn't, but stayed with me until the end._  


___There is a sequel, of sorts, called _Mementote Quae Fecerit Fuisti Ali, _if you want to check that out._

_Ta-ta (for now),  
__- LoS _:D


End file.
